Why Plateau residents prefer Unity FM – Nakande

Unity FM made its debut in 2013 with a mandate to bring harmonious co-existence among the various ethnic groups in Plateau State. Four years after, would you say that has been achieved? I think we have achieved our mandate. We have been inclusive. We have ensured fairness to all manner of people irrespective of their […]

Unity FM made its debut in 2013 with a mandate to bring harmonious co-existence among the various ethnic groups in Plateau State. Four years after, would you say that has been achieved?

I think we have achieved our mandate. We have been inclusive. We have ensured fairness to all manner of people irrespective of their religious and tribal affiliations. On the social side also, we have been fair to all the political parties, we have given them a voice, a level playing field and our platform has ensured that every person has a space to be able to showcase or advocate his or her views within the confines of the law and the profession.

Jos is gradually becoming a hub for radio stations, presently boasting of about nine. How are you able to remain afloat in spite of the competition?

We kept our budget down. We have been humble in our activities from the beginning and I think that Jos, in spite of its challenges, is not an economic hotbed like Kano, Lagos or Kaduna, where one can make a lot of money. But, so far, we have been able to break even, and that is what has kept us going. I must say we really appreciate our listeners for their support and loyalty.

What stands Unity FM out among other radio stations?

I think it is because of our inclusive policy to embrace everybody. There is no segregation in Unity FM, and we are able to come up with programmes that appeal to the minds and emotions of our listeners. For example, we have community broadcasts that we took cognisance of about seven major languages in Plateau State. Every week there is one ethnic programme or another. This is done to maintain peace and inform them about happenings within their communities. For example, we have programmes in Berom, Hausa, Goemai, Mwaghavul, Fulani, and Tarok, among others. These are the things that have endeared Unity FM to people on the Plateau.

You once spoke about plans to expand, have you been able to do this; what stage are you now?

Right now, our reach is within Jos as specified by the National Broadcasting Commission. However, if for any reason our signals are received  elsewhere, it is not through any deliberate effort on our part. But, of course, we hope to go to other states to open additional radio stations, and now that we are having digitisation, I believe we can take such opportunity to also start a television station. 

Hopefully, in the next two months, we will be able to embark on 24 hours broadcasting. We have already started the process. Our consultants are working on it and we have started developing our apps on android and iOS so that our listeners can use their smart phones to download our applications and listen to us from anywhere in the world.

How far have you gone with the TV station and how soon can you start?

We have started doing our due diligence in terms of feasibility studies to see how we can key in. With the benefit of technology, it is easy to just key into the digitisation programme, which has already been piloted from Jos, then Abuja before it goes to others parts of the country. All we need is permission from the National Broadcasting Commission, because certain key players have already been given  license to put up the infrastructure for us to digitise the network. 

This is a directive from the International Telecommunication Union, so every country must key in and there is a deadline. Ours has already been extended to 2019. So far, two companies have been licensed in Nigeria; that is the ITS, which is a partnership between Star Times and the NTA and then Pinnacle Communications which is the company that started the second phase of the digitisation in Abuja. The ITS was used in the Plateau take-off and the Abuja take-off was handled by Pinnacle. Once all these things are put in place, we should be able to key in and then pick a channel out of their own reach so we can be seen across the country. 

And then we can go satellite if we want to, but for now, this is where we are.

What is the cost implication of establishing a TV station, especially in a country facing recession?

We are still working on these issues, but I think in our own case, it would be minimal because we already have a property in Jos and it is owned by Unity FM. Since we have a lot of space, we can quickly put our own infrastructure within that property, and it will reduce our cost substantially. We can also train our workers to be able to do both TV and radio because we have the NTA Television College here, there is a media school in Kaduna, and of course, our developmental partners, the NGOs have assisted us in trainings.

A lot of private companies are going under and staff are being laid off, what strategies are you deploying to survive?

We put our cost down from the beginning. Of course, our revenue has dropped because the private companies that are advertising have also reduced patronage. You can’t keep advertising in a vacuum. You are advertising to people who are affected by recession, whose disposable income cannot buy your product, so why are you advertising? I just hope that things improve soon.

How do you feel about the huge listenership Unity FM now commands?

We feel great. We have about three million listeners, and I hope that by the time we unfold our new technology, the entire world would be our space where people can listen to us from anywhere in the world.